"I saw you, Mr John Newton,
I saw who you were...
and I felt like tearing out
your throat."

Olaudah Equiano is famous for his autobiography, an account of his childhood in an area called Essaka, an Igbo village in modern-day Nigeria, as the son of the chief, and experiences as a former slave. The book, The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano or Gustavus Vassa, the African, became immensely popular at the height of the anti-slavery campaign, when Equiano was in his early forties.

At about the age of 11, Equiano and his sister were kidnapped and shipped through the notorious ‘Middle Passage’ of the Atlantic Ocean. A British naval officer, Michael Pascal, later bought Equiano and introduced him to the naval way of life. Pascal also renamed Equiano 'Gustavus Vassa' after a 16th-century Swedish nobleman who led the Swedes in a war of independence against the Danes to become the first Swedish king — an ironic renaming, at the very least, on Pascal’s part.

Equiano was brought to England, where he learnt to read and write at a school in London in between periods of naval service. Equiano saw action in major naval battles during the Seven Years’ War in the 1750s, travelling to Canada and the Mediterranean. He was now baptised and had fought for the British and felt entitled to freedom and some of the prize money handed out to sailors on the naval vessels, but was cheated of this income. Instead, he was sold to another sea captain who took him to Monserrat, in the Caribbean, where he was sold to Robert King, a Quaker merchant. During this time he was exposed to the horrors of slavery; he saw fellow slaves treated abominably.

Equiano was more fortunate than some of his peers, holding the position of 'gauger' (similar to that of a quality controller today) on the plantations. After three years of saving his income, he was able to buy his freedom for £40 in 1766.

He returned to England and became a hairdresser, but soon returned to sea. In 1773, he joined a voyage of exploration, under the command of John Phipps, to find a north-west passage to India by way of the North Pole.

His book appeared in the Spring of 1789 and was, in general, favourably reviewed. It was unique in that Equiano not only wrote it himself but also published it by subscription, which meant finding sponsors for it in advance. He then sold the book throughout Britain, undertaking lecture tours and actively campaigning to abolish the slave trade. Equiano became the effective leader of the black community in London, a group that called itself "The Sons of Africa".